Web services provide access to data, information, and other functionality to client or host devices on a network. In general, a client device or host device transmits a web service request, including a query for data or information, to a web service server. In response to receiving the web service request, the server executes programming code for the web service and generates a web service response based on the received request. The server transmits the generated response, including data or information related to the query, back to the client device or host device having transmitted the query. The client device or host device may communicate directly with the web service, or may communicate with a web service application programming interface (API) associated with the web service.
Many advanced networks provide extensible markup language (XML) based web services that enable individual users and systems access to network data. For example, such web services may be based on one or more network protocols designed to facilitate communications between users and web servers that host one or more services for the users. Examples of such communication protocols include, but are not limited to, the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and the Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The web services may also be designed to facilitate communications between a host or server and the web servers that host services for the host or server. A user (or host/server) may access a web service, for example through a web service application program or a web service API, which can provide one or more operations or functions (e.g., methods) for the user (or host/server) to use in accessing the web service. One example of a web service is a virtual store web service, which may have one or more services for searching or browsing a catalog, selecting items from the catalog, performing checkout to purchase catalog items, or the like.
To access the methods of a web service, a user's or host's client device generally establishes a network connection to a web server hosting the particular web service. Accordingly, the web service is typically associated with a specific uniform resource locator (URL) that defines the host name and port number for network communications in addition to, for example, the particular location of the web service application in the directory structure of the server. Once a connection is established with the user's or host's client device, the web service provides access to its data and methods, as requested by the client. The client device may communicate directly with the web service, or may communicate with the web service through one or more APIs associated with the web service.
The programming code of a web service may be updated to provide new functionalities to users and client devices, to improve the efficiency of the web service (or associated web service API), or the like. When web service (or web service API) programming code is updated or improved, the web service (or web service API) needs to be tested to ensure the stability of the service under different conditions, the proper functioning of the service, etc. As programming code for web services are updated with increasing frequency, and as the programming code and the web services include increasingly complex and interdependent features that requiring testing, a need exists to quickly, reliably, and automatically test the programming code for web services to ensure the proper functioning of web services provided to users.